The present invention relates generally to telecommunication systems that provide telephony services to consumers. More particularly, the present invention relates to techniques for the distribution of enhanced telecommunication services to consumers over the currently existing wiring infrastructure associated with the customer premises.
A number of data communication techniques may be utilized to provide high-speed digital data to consumers. Such digital data may be associated with telephone, facsimile machine, video, audio, internet, and other applications. In contrast to the traditional (4 kHz bandwidth) telephone transmission system, digital data can be used to convey a large amount of information in an efficient and accurate manner. Such digital data may be transmitted at high bit rates in accordance with any number of conventional methods and protocols, e.g., cable modem technology, fiber optic networks, ADSL modem technology, ISDN technology, wireless digital modem technology, and the like.
Although high speed digital transmission systems are becoming increasingly popular for applications such as cable television and personal computers, they have not been fully exploited to provide enhanced telephony services to customer premises that are wired to support plain old telephone service (xe2x80x9cPOTSxe2x80x9d) transmissions. Indeed, the focus of many telephony service providers (and cable service providers who provide internet access) has been limited to the delivery of high speed digital data to the customer premises; the manner in which the telephony services are to be distributed within the customer premises has not been given much attention. Enhanced telephony services may include any number of features that are either difficult or impossible to implement in many practical situations: multiple phone numbers supported by a single twisted pair; selective ringing of telephone devices supported by a single twisted pair; and the regulation of incoming and outgoing call traffic according to available wiring resources.
One currently proposed high speed digital telephony system is schematically depicted in FIG. 1. In accordance with conventional twisted pair telephone wiring schemes, a customer site 100 (a home, a building, or the like) includes two twisted pairs 102, 104 configured to support telephony services. For the sake of clarity, twisted pair 102 is depicted as a solid line and twisted pair 104 is depicted as a dashed line. Customer site 100 may include a number of standard RJ-11 telephone jacks 106, 108, 110 that are compatible with telephone plugs associated with the customer premises equipment. In FIG. 1, jack 106 and jack 108 are electrically connected together by twisted pair 102 such that a first telephone 112 and a second telephone 114 receive and place calls on twisted pair 102, which is specifically devoted to supporting first telephone 112 and second telephone 114. Twisted pair 104 and jack 110 are devoted to supporting a fax machine 116.
Customer site 100 has a network interface device (xe2x80x9cNIDxe2x80x9d) 120 associated therewith. NID 120 is located proximate the physical structure of customer site 100. In a conventional POTS scheme, the local telephone company provides the 4 kHz telephony service to NID 120 via any number of switching stations, central offices, and the like. In contrast, the high speed digital telephony system shown in FIG. 1 is configured such that NID 120 obtains input signals from a digital interface 122, which in turn receives digital data 123 in accordance with a conventional digital data transmission technique. Digital interface 122 transforms the digital data 123 into analog signals that are transmitted to NID 120. These analog signals are equivalent to the analog signals produced by a conventional POTS technique. In other words, once the digital data is received and converted into the analog signals, the telephony service and the distribution of calls are handled in a conventional POTS manner. Consequently, the availability of high speed digital data cannot be fully exploited by this prior art system due to the practical limitations of the existing POTS wiring and the existing POTS telephony distribution scheme.
Although a number of theoretical solutions may be capable of providing enhanced telephony services once a high speed digital link is established, such solutions would be impractical and/or too costly to implement. For example, a truly practical solution should leverage as much of the existing customer premises wiring as possible. A requirement of new or re-routed wires, outlets, junction boxes, and the like would make any new distribution solution unattractive to the end user and expensive to implement by the service provider. In addition, consumers may be reluctant to implement a new telephony paradigm if doing so would require them to abandon their familiar POTS telephones. Furthermore, in contrast to a substantial change in the operation of telephone services, a gradual introduction of enhanced services, based on actual demand, would meet less resistance from consumers.
The present invention provides improved techniques for providing telephony services to the customer premises. The improved telephony techniques enable enhanced services to be efficiently distributed within the customer premises without having to overhaul the existing telephone wiring infrastructure associated with the premises. A telephony system in accordance with the present invention can support a plurality of telephone numbers even though the customer premises may be wired with only a single twisted pair.
A smooth transition from the traditional POTS paradigm to an enhanced telephony system according to the present invention is possible because the enhanced system can be made fully compatible with legacy telephony equipment. In accordance with the present invention, the operating procedures associated with the enhanced system (e.g., placing calls, joining a call with an extension telephone, dialing, and the like) are identical or substantially similar to the procedures associated with the POTS scheme, thus preserving the familiar operating protocols known to consumers. Furthermore, consumers may be given the opportunity to gradually take advantage of enhanced services and additional features to suit their needs and/or budgets.
The above and other features of the present invention may be carried out in one form by a method for distributing telephony services to a plurality of telephony devices corresponding to a plurality of telephone numbers, where the plurality of telephony devices are operatively connected to a common twisted pair. The method involves the steps of receiving a digital signal that conveys telephony data associated with an incoming call, obtaining a called party identifier from the digital signal, and performing a signaling procedure in response to the called party identifier. The signaling procedure transmits ring information to at least one of the telephony devices.